Native Instruments Komplete 26 released

[noiseboyuk]

While I'm not jumping on this either at this stage - just doesn't make sense for me personally - there's a lot of predictable rush to judgement here.

In terms of products, NI has made some big changes in the last year or two. People forget what a huge deal Absynth 6 was - that that was dead and buried and we attended the funeral. It was a huge thing that they turned it around. Kontakt 8 is headed in far healthier direction than the horror show that was Kontakt 7. And there's the promise of more good stuff ahead.

Of course, the insolvency throws a grenade into all that. Are they able to deliver on this scale ongoing? Don't know.

People have been ragging on NI ever since I re-joined music in the 2000s, massively predating the iZotope acquisition. And often with good reason - the Kore debacle was horrendous. But of late have been headed in a positive direction.

Don't fancy K26? Don't buy it. No need to turn it into a moral crusade. IMO it's wise to wait and see what transpires with the insolvency anyway. But I'm rooting for them.

[JasonSpatola]

People forget what a huge deal Absynth 6 was - that that was dead and buried and we attended the funeral.

I was and still am happy as a clam this happened, but... It still felt like paying for a reskin with a couple things added and a couple (reportedly temporarily) removed.

Appreciated for sure! Huge tho? Not for me. (I realize I just gave everyone a large opening for puerile jokes.)

You are right, though. There's at least future potential.

It's still hard to get enthused about a Komplete without any updates to the flagships. I think Komplete 7 was the only other time they did that.

[imrae]

Dropping Ozone Standard really kills the "impulse buy" factor for me, I'm not going to use Elements over Tokyo Dawn stuff but the full version might be interesting.

I know it's a niche detail in the scheme of things, but something bothering me is that since the last time I upgraded Komplete they've broken installation/activation on Linux. People are managing with old installers etc but that's no good for the new stuff.

So I'm looking at this estimating

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P(NI survives) * !P(I leave Windows entirely)

, and neither of those factors looks to be improving over time.

[burkek]

Why would I give a dime to a company who hasn't even updated the Kontakt change log since 8.4? They've abandoned it, it would seem. Kontakt is currently on v8.10.1.

https://www.native-instruments.com/ni-t ... on-history

KEv

[Pepin]

”turning around a company like NI that has been mismanaged for decades is not going to happen overnight”

If this is true, how come this ”mismanaged company” pre 2024 been able to produce and implement and launch decades so great products?

The downhilll started from the acquisition of the iZotope. That fusion was really unfortunate because of the overlapping clientele.

NI started to bundle NI products and Izotope products for the customers which already had most of main iZotope products. At the same time NI stopped /reduced developing /deliver major innovations such as the Reaktor and major high quality instruments and effects, concentrating on the preset libraries and ”atmospheric sample players”.

The add on value of the Komplete series products for the existing loyal customers has decreased dramatically at the same time as their pricing has rocketed.

Financially speaking, I suspect the cause of the downturn was the pandemic when everyone was at home purchasing disproportionate amounts of music software. NI likely pursued a strategy of unsustainable growth thinking this aberration was the new normal. Acquisitions were definitely a part of that, and many other tech companies did the same.

For perspective, Native Instruments saw 30% growth in 2020 during the height of the pandemic. Contrast that with the "steep decline in sales" just a few years later.

I think that explains the current state of affairs more than any specific product decisions. If they abandoned the Play series and doubled down on Reaktor during the same time period, it's entirely possible they'd be in the exact same situation today (albeit more popular on KVR). Speaking as a total non-insider, of course.

[Harry_HH]

” Financially speaking, I suspect the cause of the downturn was the pandemic when everyone was at home purchasing disproportionate amounts of music software. NI likely pursued a strategy of unsustainable growth thinking this aberration was the new normal. Acquisitions were definitely a part of that, and many other tech companies did the same.”


Quite a imaginative far away explanation.

According to you the NI bad state is due to the reason that ”everyone was at home purchasing disproportionate amounts of music software during the 2020-21 pandemic”

[Pepin]

According to you the NI bad state is due to the reason that ”everyone was at home purchasing disproportionate amounts of music software during the 2020-21 pandemic”

That is not an accurate summary if you care to read my post more carefully.
My point is that decisions made as a result of those increased sales likely proved unsustainable once those sales numbers didn't continue growing year to year.

[Harry_HH]

According to you the NI bad state is due to the reason that ”everyone was at home purchasing disproportionate amounts of music software during the 2020-21 pandemic”

That is not an accurate summary if you care to read my post more carefully.
My point is that decisions made as a result of those increased sales likely proved unsustainable once those sales numbers didn't continue growing year to year.

This doesn’t make your explanation better.

You are saying that a 25 years old, experienced company Native Instruments made their business calculation in the imagination that the demand for software during the exceptional period - if there was actually such a thing in 2020-21, would continue forever.

And the bad state of the NI is consequence of that miscalculation.

I don’t buy that explanation.

In my opinion, the reason for the current situation is: 1. A misjudged acquisition (iZotope), 2. Poor product strategy traditional NI products/iZotope products, 3. Abandoning the NI own very successful product concept, 4. Neglect of continuous research and development, 5. Poor understanding of consumer behavior.

[Tiles]

6. shareholder value ...

[Gamma-UT]

You are saying that a 25 years old, experienced company Native Instruments made their business calculation in the imagination that the demand for software during the exceptional period - if there was actually such a thing in 2020-21, would continue forever.

And the bad state of the NI is consequence of that miscalculation.

I don’t buy that explanation.

In my opinion, the reason for the current situation is: 1. A misjudged acquisition (iZotope), 2. Poor product strategy traditional NI products/iZotope products, 3. Abandoning the NI own very successful product concept, 4. Neglect of continuous research and development, 5. Poor understanding of consumer behavior.

So, they're experienced but made a bunch of rookie mistakes. Ok, got it. Totally consistent explanation there.

Let's face it, 5 is more or less the same as Pepin's argument: they misjudged the market size. And a lot of that comes from over-ambitious plans made by the private-equity owners, which led directly to the Isotope and PA acquisitions in the first place, in the expectation that a boom in software-based music production would make them rich.

Other than some bundling, Izotope's strategy didn't change that much in any case. The cash cow is RX in post-production and it's clear they've continued to do R&D on things that matter to post, like dialogue and background noise fixing.

And at NI, they also shitcanned some products in order to focus primarily on Kontakt. Again: the cash cow. Had they not been loaded up on debt, this probably would have been enough, even if it's not going to please Reaktor fans (like me). But as with Max etc, Reaktor fans do not exactly grow on trees.

[Pepin]

This doesn’t make your explanation better.

You are saying that a 25 years old, experienced company Native Instruments made their business calculation in the imagination that the demand for software during the exceptional period - if there was actually such a thing in 2020-21, would continue forever.

And the bad state of the NI is consequence of that miscalculation.

I don’t buy that explanation.

In my opinion, the reason for the current situation is: 1. A misjudged acquisition (iZotope), 2. Poor product strategy traditional NI products/iZotope products, 3. Abandoning the NI own very successful product concept, 4. Neglect of continuous research and development, 5. Poor understanding of consumer behavior.

It doesn't matter how "experienced" the company is if they're owned by private equity with very high risk tolerance. Such leadership will take a 10% chance for exponential profit if it presents itself over a safer route.

Many tech companies made similar mistakes during the pandemic. It's the nature of "endless growth" at these types of companies, not incompetence per se. Those at the top are aware of the risks.

[0degree]

I find that disappointing.

I'm signed in to my account and see this page

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https://www.native-instruments.com/en/catalog/music-creation/bundles/komplete/

shows me 149 to update Komplete Standard

Yet when I click on it it takes me to this page

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https://www.native-instruments.com/en/pricing/komplete-26-standard/

which shows me 199 to update the same.

They can keep it!

I wanted to update my old Komplete Ultimate and same story - the first page shows £269.00 but navigating to the second link shows £539.00

They're out of their minds with this pricing - I literally care only about Absynth update

[zvenx]

I am probably forgetting another big player. But I would say ten years ago, the biggest companies in music software, in terms of number of product would be NI, Waves and to maybe a lesser extent Steinberg.

Yamaha owns Steinberg and has for many years (since 2004), what has Waves done to survive that NI hasn't?

rsp

[Sascha Franck]

what brands are going to pay for sync in a world where the marketing team can prompt their own jingles and music?

Pretty much none. A kinda friend of mine is pretty much in a top position at a marketing company and I recently talked to him about how all kinda AI things would impact them. He said AI is all over the place already and that they'd have top tier subscriptions to pretty much any AI models, be it Suno, VEO 3 and what not. Sure, so far there's still some folks needed to do the video and audio editing, but in their company that's one single guy.

Now, as far as NI and their big Komplete packages are concerned, it's a question about how much the amateur/hobby market will fall for AI as well (as that's very clearly/logically the vast amount of their users). Possibly that market will stay kinda intact for longer, but I already know quite some folks from forums who are already reaching for Suno when they need, say, a string arrangement. For them it's enough to come up with an idea, have the lion share of work done by AI and then maybe add and rearrange things a bit.
I'd say that this will become a pretty much unstoppable thing (which, fwiw, I hate as much as it gets).

[zvenx]

Probably softube also belongs in that list?
rsp